Brazil Crackland Portraits [PHOTOS]

From teenage mothers and fathers to truck drivers and homeless addicts, Brazil’s 24 hour drugs market Crackland has become home to people from all walks of life.

Located in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, crack cocaine users visit the open-air bazaars to buy rocks of the drug and smoke it in plain sight, day or night.

As the country’s drugs crisis reaches epidemic levels, its markets pull in anyone looking to get high. Some of whom once held jobs, had loving families and harbored dreams of a better existence – all lost to their addictions.

It currently has an estimated 1 million users of the drug – a cheap and highly addictive derivative of the coca plant grown in neighboring countries.

Writers, entrepreneurs and young mothers mingle among users who have given up hope of their dreams and ever shaking their addictions.

Eduardo Santos de Souza, 46, who has fathered eight children with four different women says he has tried to cut down on his drug use and has a life outside Crackland.

Others seem to have accepted their life here. Henrique Felix Santos, 41, who said he had been an addict for a long time, has grown philosophical about his life at Crackland.

‘The expression of each human being is consistent with reality,’ he said.

While crack userof four years Renato Dias, 39, escapes reality by writing stories about super heroes, and Carla Chris, 35, clings onto optimism. ‘Smile because life is beautiful,’ she said.

Jose Mauricio Oliveira, 41, at Crackland in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil which attracts people from all walks of life, some of whom once held jobs, some with loving families, who harbored dreams of a better existence, all lost to their addiction

Anderson Pereira, 23, pictured wearing a T-shirt with a message that reads in Portuguese; ‘Nothing should seem natural’ in Crackland